The Way, The Truth, The Life

 “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?  And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.”  Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also; henceforth you know him and have seen him.” – John 14: 1-7

“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; No one comes unto the Father except by me” is a well-known and often repeated quote from the master teacher, Jesus. It is often used as a proof text in traditional Christianity to substantiate the teaching that salvation can only come through belief in Jesus. In Unity, we believe that Jesus was not speaking of himself as the way, the truth and the life; rather he was speaking of the “I Am” or the Christ which is the essence of each of us.

Jesus is saying that we cannot experience the revelation that the Father - the One Source of All - is in us and we in It, except by realization of the truth that we are the way, the truth and the life.

“The Way” is the method or the “how.”  It is a path that leads only to here and now. It is the journey without distance. It can be said that “The Way” is its own destination; It is the “How” within itself. There is nowhere to go and nothing to do. It is knowing that nowhere is “Now-Here.”  It is the way of itself, the way within itself.

We experience being “the way” by knowing that we are already now-here. We are already it; here and now. We can relax in the knowing that there is nowhere to go and nothing to do in order to know the “Father”.

“The Truth” is the self-knowingness of the Spirit. It is the only reality. It is the essence of all that is. It is that which can be known but cannot be told. It is not intelligence for intelligence is of the mind. Truth is beyond the mind. We do our best to express Truth, but words cannot contain it. It cannot be expressed: it can only be experienced. The Truth is within us and we are within the Truth.

We experience it by becoming a conscious observer of it. We can only experience it when we cease attempting to know the truth, and choose to realize that we already are the knowing that we seek. We simply must allow it to be as it is.

“The Life” is the self-livingness of the ALL. It is not born; It does not die. It is the ever-expanding, ever-giving, ever-expressing Self. The Life is the evolutionary impulse of Creation.  It is creative intelligence and it is the organizing principle of All that is.

We experience The Way, The Truth, The Life by becoming aware of the awakened presence that we already are. No one can teach it. No one can explain it. No one can guide us on the path to becoming what we already are. Life is; I Am.

We will know the Father when we know the way, the truth and the life and realize that we are that I AM.

Then, we will know what Jesus meant when he said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you that where I Am there you may be also.”

As long as Jesus appeared to the disciples in form, they continued to look to him to show them the way, teach them the truth and be their connection to life. He knew he had to leave in order that they might claim their own truth. He knew that they had to know for themselves that they were in the Father and the Father in them. The same is true for us. Jesus is not the way, the truth and the life; each of us is. When we claim that as our truth, we will be where Jesus is. We will know the Christ, and we will know ourselves as the Christ.

I invite you this week to begin the day with the affirmation, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  Set yourself free.